Gove is long gone but Tories are still taking school standards “backwards”, says Hunt

Tristram Hunt, Shadow Secretary of State for Education has said that the Tory policies are putting far too much emphasis on on the way schools are structured, instead of the quality of teaching – much to the detriment of academic standards.

He has said:

“The Tories are taking standards backwards, focusing obsessively on school structures at the expense of what matters most in our classrooms – the quality of teaching. Whilst his Tory-led government has spent billions on tinkering with school structures, they changed the rules to allow unqualified teachers to be permanently employed in schools, dealing school standards and children’s life chances a major blow.

“Labour will put an end to this obsession on school types and focus our schools policy to deliver our ambition of a world-class teacher in every classroom. We will ensure all teachers become qualified and continue to build their skills once in the classroom. That is how we improve the educational attainment for all children regardless of their background.”

Hunt made these remarks after figures were released showing academics that changed their status under new rules introduced by Gove (which made it easier for schools to become academies) have a slower rate of academic improvement than those introduced under Labour’s converter rules (which were desgined made to effectively channel public resources into “struggling schools“)

He followed these comments up with an article in the Guardian today, the Shadow Secretary for Education also attacked Michael Gove’s successor as Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan – saying that she is “even more hell-bent on their destruction” than Gove.

Hunt attacked Morgan for a report in which it was suggested that she wanted all schools “to implement centrally prescribed criteria for putting students into sets in order to be considered ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted”. Hunt criticised this proposed centralising measure, calling it “a new low in diktat-driven schooling”.

Then he went on to say that when it comes to ever-increasing class sizes (with 93,655 infants taught in classes with more than 30 children),  Morgan has made “a proud pledge to ignore parents and continue her party’s choice of ideology over need when it comes to new school places and class size.”